The Doosan Bears have been struggling lately, with their trusted starting pitching staff struggling. In particular, the struggles of Doosan pitcher Choi Won-jun, the eldest of the homegrown starters, have been devastating. With 10 losses instead of 10 wins, Doosan is now on the verge of 10 losses, and their trusted pitcher hasn’t been able to get the job done.
On August 13, Doosan lost 3-8 against the Hanwha Eagles in Daejeon. After dropping the weekend sweep, Doosan remained in fifth place in the league with a season record of 49 wins, one draw and 47 losses. They are now three games behind third-place KT WIZ.
Choi Won-jun started the game on the mound for Doosan and started to get into trouble in the bottom of the first inning. After giving up a leadoff single to Moon Hyun-bin and a walk to Noh Si-hwan, Choi gave up a leadoff single to Chae Eun-sung with runners on first and second. After back-to-back singles by Kim Tae-yeon and Lee Jin-young, Choi scored three runs in the first inning.
In the top of the second, Doosan cut the deficit to 3-1 with a solo home run to left field by leadoff hitter Yang Seok-hwan.
However, Choi Won-jun gave up a double to left-center field to Moon Hyun-bin one out later in the inning. The Doosan bench moved faster than expected, as the team immediately brought in Kim Min-kyu in place of Choi Won-jun to try and prevent any further damage. After a wild pitch in the second inning, Kim gave up a sacrifice fly to right field to bring home Choi’s successor.
In the end, Choi suffered his ninth loss of the season, allowing four runs on five hits and five walks with one strikeout in 1.1 innings of work on 38 pitches. Doosan was unable to overcome the early deficit in the game.
The biggest disappointment on the mound for Doosan this season has been the struggles of the oldest member of their starting rotation, Choi Won-jun. In five appearances in April, Choi went 2-2 with a 4.03 ERA. With his luck seemingly out of control, Choi threw a complete game shutout against the Gochuk Kiwoom Heroes on May 16, giving up one run in six innings.
Since then, Choi’s pitching flow, which seemed to be going well, has gone downhill. With only one quality start since June, Choi’s innings pitched plummeted due to a combination of slumps and injuries. He has now accumulated nine losses (two wins). This is even more shocking as he was believed to be a 10-win starter for the season. 토토사이트
There are those who believe that Choi’s struggles are the aftermath of innings piled up in recent years. Starting in 2019 (54.1 innings), Won-jun Choi established himself as a first-team regular and pitched more innings each year through 2020 (123 innings), 2021 (158.1 innings), and 2022 (165 innings). If you include his postseason appearances, Choi has pitched even more innings than that.
The aftermath was a decline in his fastball velocity. Starting with the 2019 season (139.8 mph), Choi’s fastball velocity declined each year through 2020 (139.3 mph), 2021 (138.7 mph), 2022 (138.3 mph), and 2023 (137.8 mph).
In the past, when Choi was pitching well, his fastball velocity was consistently in the 140-2 km/h range. However, this season, the